There's so much to love in this fictional tale of Ruth Devon, a sideline reporter hoping (gunning?) to become the first woman to call NBA games on national television.

I read The Second Season practically in one sitting, switching between the text and the audio. I could have put it down around the halfway point but honestly, I just didn't want to. As a woman who's long felt a love of sports and journalism in my bones, this is very much the sort of book I'd find easy to love... or throw across the room in frustration. (I'm delighted that my feelings while reading were generally the former.)

The book mostly takes place over the course of the NBA Finals (between the Cincinnati Wildcats and the Seattle Supersonics). I so enjoyed following Ruth on the job -- where her ex-husband also works -- as well as in her personal life. She has a daughter about to graduate high school and a boyfriend who wants to get married. Much of the writing was visceral: I could feel the action as if I were watching a real game, feel Ruth's experiences as if I were having them myself.

There is one odd scene in which it's implied that boyfriends are watching the last game of the finals, while their girlfriends ask who they're seeing on screen and need to infer what it means to call the games. In a book that otherwise seemed to bat down misogyny around women in sports, it seemed out of place and more than a little off. (Ideally, it'll have already been rewritten and won't appear in the published text.)

That and a few clunky spots aside, I loved my reading experience so much I'm rounding up from 4.5 to 5 stars. And because author Emily Adrian really stuck the landing.

This was cute and likeable but I never connected with the characters or felt fully invested. Maybe I should try again? I don’t know this just never clicked for me but had all the right things for a great read.

I know virtually nothing about basketball but that's not what this novel, set during an NBA finals run, is about. Ruth was a star at Georgetown but she blew out her knee and married her coach, Lester, who whom she has a daughter Ariana. Ari's about to graduate from high school but has no plans for college because she's determined to be a model, a choice Ruth doesn't understand. What she does understand is that she's at a juncture in her own life. Lester, who worked his way up the coaching ranks and into an analyst seat is about to retire and Ruth, who has been a sideline reporter, wants his job. They divorced years ago and now Ruth is involved with Joel and conflicted about that relationship. This moves back and forth in time to tell Ruth's story- not just of her career but also of how she dealt with being a mom (not well, actually). If I have a quibble it's that the timeline jumps forward suddenly near the end and then goes back in a way that I found jarring (I went back to reread to make sure I hadn't missed something). She's a fascinating character and one who is relatable even if you don't care about sports. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A very good read.

Ruth Devon has spent her whole adult life pursing basketball: first as a college player at Georgetown, then as a radio announcer, and now as sideline reporter. When her ex-husband retires, Ruth makes a play for his job: she wants to be the first female to call NBA games on national television. Told in alternating timelines (the current day NBA finals and flashbacks), Ruth reflects on her life.

This was so good. While I don’t understand Ruth’s (or anyone’s) obsession with basketball, The Second Season is an interesting look at being a women in a man’s world, going for the career you want, and being a mom. You should read this!

Thanks to @NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for my ARC! The Second Season is out July 27, 2021.

I really wanted to love this book because it is right up my alley. I love sports and sports broadcasting has always been my thing but I prefer a dialogue heavy book. This book just didn't do it for me.

This was fascinating!! As someone who doesn’t know much about the NBA, I was completely invested by Ruth’s dilemmas.

I guarantee this is more of a personal problem than an actual book problem, but I really did not enjoy this book. As a former college athlete, I was immediately drawn to the idea of this book. The basketball terminology was fun and I totally related to Ruth (in fact, I know a real-life Ruth - a friend from college persued the exact same dream that motivated Ruth). However, while I appreciate women who chase their dreams, I came to dislike Ruth a whole lot because she totally put her child second. I get that some women make that tough choice, but it is so against my way of thinking that I became judgmental and disliked Ruth to the point that I disliked the book. I just don't subscirbe to that way of thinking and it's just not for me. Sorry :(

I never had a thing for sports so this book and all of its terminology was something I was not a huge fan of. As for Ruth? I loved her as woman going for her dreams and pushing forth, even at the expense of her own daughter’s graduation, or anything that’s has to do with family time. She needed to get to go her goal first and family came second even though she knows its wrong. The characters overall were hard to really like, but the fact that after all of that Ruth was able to realize all that is wrong when there is no balance between career and family? I appreciated that.

If you are into fictional sports reads this one will be perfect, and a little romance of course!!!! Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I enjoyed reading this story. I especially liked how the story was based around a woman trying to dominate in a man-centered sports world.
I liked how Ruth’s character stood up to prove that a woman can have both a career and a family and still be successful.

Ruth was a fabulous main characters who was very well rounded. She was dominating in basketball, a male dominated field, when a knee injury took her out. She has to figure out what she wants to be doing with her life, while still loving basketball and raising her daughter.

I expected so much more from this book. While it is clear that the story is mainly about Ruth Devon and her desire to be the main play by play person for the network’s basketball telecasts, I had a difficult time rooting for her to achieve that goal, nor did I find the side stories of her love life or her family issues all that enjoyable. The basketball writing was okay at best - although it was good when showing the reader how knowledgeable Ruth was.

It should also be noted that none of the other characters are particularly likable either. One could say that’s because everyone has flaws - that’s true but they outright the good qualities of the characters, the story and the overall enjoyment of the book. Some may really enjoy this but it was not a fun one for me.

This is a very interesting read. It tells the story of Ruth, a former college basketball star who, through much hard work, has risen to one of the top women in sports media. She is now the sideline reporter for the NBA, but what she most hopes for is to be made the first full-time female announcer of NBA games. When one of the current announcers retires, Ruth goes for the job -- at the same time her personal life is at its own crossroads. The book explores Ruth's journey navigating her professional dreams and her personal life, while providing flashbacks to how she got to this inflection point. A thought-provoking read. Recommended!

The Second Season is a smart addition to the rapidly growing category of “can women really have it all” fiction. I don’t mean that to sound reductive—however, I find that I’m reading more and more books about women hitting the latter half of their career, or the time in their lives when their children are grown, or the point at which they may be offered the chance to eclipse a husband or an ex-husband, and an existential crisis of sorts ensues. This book is entertaining, especially for basketball fans, and I think this is an important topic to confront, because it’s real. Women are faced with these issues and these choices all the time. Emily Adrian’s writing is great, and I found myself genuinely invested in Ruth and her story. I really liked it.

My thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for an advance reader’s copy.

The Second Season is a book that will both awaken and empower women. It asks the questions we always seem to have to ask ourselves as women. Career or family? Love or career? And why is it always the women that have to give something up?

This was just my type of book. I'm a huge basketball fan and to see a woman in the trenches and succeeding in the male dominated field of basketball broadcasting, this was a pleasure to really dive into. Emily Adrian wrote with such a strong voice for our main character, Ruth Devon. She is 42 and still wants the world. She is successful and knows her basketball and the players. She is the woman's voice in the sport that has been dominated by men. I liked that we got a woman's perspective and to see her relationships and how they were affected with the decisions she made concerning her family and career. I was right there with her interviewing players and questioning if I made the right decisions in the past for my child and career. Just when she is on the brink of changing her future, something else throws a kink into her plans.

This book was a quick read that took me a little bit to read. It's fast paced but the characters and the story are well developed and easy to relate to. I loved seeing a powerful woman in a "man's world" and succeeding. Give me more women in sports and doing it well, please.

Following a career-ending knee injury ended her college basketball career, Ruth Devon married her college coach and pursued an uber-successful career as a basketball commentator and sideline reporter for the NBA. During the NBA Finals, something happens to force Ruth to figure out what she wants for her future. It's about a woman who is unabashedly in love with her career, but also raising a daughter. It's about a woman working in a male-domainated profession and having to figure out what she wants in life. And, it's darker and a lot more substantive than I expected! If you loved Charlotte Walsh Like to Win, you might love this one! Note: there is a lot of basketball talk.

Challenges of ambition, desire, and parenthood collide with crystal-clear prose and make for a compelling narrative. Ruth is a character who wants things, who knows that wanting things makes other things impossible, and lives in that place of ambiguity. The plot avoids cliche and has a laser sharp focus on Ruth and her experience in the compressed, hectic swirl of the NBA playoffs. While liking sports and ambition will likely help, they are not a prerequisite to enjoying the story. Rather, the author constructs a world in which everything is both heightened and mundane, and the tension pays off very well.

While it was a little odd to have 2 non active teams featured in the story (RIP Supersonics...) I loved the premise of this novel. Ruth was likeable - Lester was not, and I found myself rooting for her as she tried to survive an NBA final series as well as life.

Excellent debut novel - can't wait for more from this author!

A strong lead female character that takes no ... lip ... from anyone. An intimate look into the world of sports and the attitude towards genders. A fantastic read in one sitting.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The Second Season by Emily Adrian is about a woman,Ruth, who is a sports announcer of sorts (please forgive me because some of this is a bit confusing to me as I don’t follow sports in the least). Her and her ex husband both report on basketball games. He had a higher job and is planning on stepping away and she wants his job, but there is a larger picture to this. She is a mother and has a lot to question about what more time away and a jump in her career will do to her future, both positively and negatively. I really liked how this book showed how difficult it is to be a woman in a field dominated by men and how expectations for women, especially women who are mothers are so different than what is expected of men who are fathers. There are some uncomfortable situations brought up about choices on pregnancy and motherhood that I think some people would take issue with, but I do truly respect the way this story was handled in Ruth’s case to illuminate her struggles with dealing with who she is and what she ultimately wants. For someone like me who doesn’t love sports or know much about them, I felt like the parts that were heavy into the basketball games were a bit hard to follow and didn’t fully hold my interest. I felt like you almost needed to have some knowledge of interest in sports to really enjoy this book all the way. I thought the story was good, but I really wanted it to get more personal with Ruth’s life outside of basketball. I wanted more about her relationship with her boyfriend and her daughter and there were times that the lack of this made it hard to truly connect with Ruth’s character.

A sharply drawn portrait of a woman at a crossroads in her life, forced to choose between a career in sports analysis that she has put her life's work into and another chance at motherhood. I am neither a mother nor a basketball fan, and neither of those things mattered. "The Second Season" was engrossing and sharp, and a showcase of Adrian's clear talent.